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Helmet Laws and Seat Belt Laws

Motokid

Motokid

New Member
Where do y'all stand on motorcycle helmet laws? Do you support the idea that if you choose to ride on, or oporate a motorcycle that the law should require that you wear a helmet? This is about adults, not children.

How do you feel about seat belt laws? Is there a need and/or desire to have a law that requires every person in an automobile to use a seat belt?
I'm not talking about children and car seats and that kind of thing. I'm talking about adults as the law defines adults.

I will not play devils advocate on this one, but I will hold my views until later if anybody chooses to voice their opinion on this subject.

I don't want to "scare" anybody off. :D
 
well i am of the opinion that if you are not wise enough to wear a seat belt or helmut of your own accord then you are likely not wise enough to own a motorcycle or car.

why'd you change avatars btw? are you going for a more youthful image? feeling a bit mid-life crisis-ish? :D
 
Opinion understood there Jenn, but where do you stand on making or enforceing laws about it?

I answered the avatar thing in my thread on "The Simpsons" .

You'll have to go search it out there....post #3 i believe...
 
I'm sure someone can correct me on the details (Ice...? :D ) but as far as I'm aware you have to wear a seatbelt by law if one's available. As for my personal opion, yes I think it should be a legal requirement to wear a seatbelt in a car, no matter whether you're the driver or passenger. I think anyone who doesn't, is frankly, a fool. Not sure about helmets, but they should make that a legal requirement too, if it isn't already.

I'm eagerly awaiting seeing where you're intending on going with this thread Moto... and I'm also quite eager for someone to justify why they shouldn't have to wear a seatbelt.
 
I really don't like the fact that it's a law. If you're stupid enough to not wear a seatbelt or a helmet (which I am, I'm afraid), then that's your own choice, I think.
 
What if you get in a collision? Then the other vehicle involved is effacted by your choice. If you are on a motorcycle and not wearing a helmet, it could be a horrible experience for the family in a car that has to see the effects of your choice.
 
yes i do think it should be a law. obviously it would be wonderful to think that if one is responsible enough to own a vehicle then they would also be a responsible driver. of course we all know that is not true, and so a law enforcing seatbelts and helmuts at the very least protects those fools from themselves.
 
Ronny said:
If you are on a motorcycle and not wearing a helmet, it could be a horrible experience for the family in a car that has to see the effects of your choice.
Click to expand...
Yeah, but once you start thinking that way, you might as well put us all in straight jackets and order us never to leave our houses and then where would we be? ;)
 
1. Seatbelts. If there is a passenger in a vehicle who is not wearing a seatbelt, they are endangering the other passengers. If that vehicle gets into an accident, the person without the seatbelt will fly through the car in the direction of prior motion and hit everything on the way through. Thus, that person, by not being strapped down, is in effect a loose cannon and a danger to the other passengers. Hence the reason why it should be legally enforced.

2. Helmets. There are two feelings I have on this. The first is peer pressure. There's a difference for most people between doing something that's stupid and something that is illegal. I understand that some people see wearing a helmet as not being 'cool' (just look at Tony Danza's recent Go-Carting accident). Having it be illegal to not wear one ensures that more people will wear them, particularly in public areas (such as roads) where they are especially needed. Making it an enforcable piece of protective gear also adds to the awareness of the fact that one ought to be worn.

The second point is that the cost of a road accident and the resultant health care is huge. Anything that can be done to prevent such things is beneficial to the community as a whole. The trauma of people that hit cyclists may also be relieved somewhat, as Ronny said.
 
So why do we have millions of kids on school buses that have no seat belts? Well, the driver has one, but the kids don't.

And if it's a matter of protecting people from their own stupidity then why can people still smoke cigarettes, and drink alcohol?

Why can people sky-dive, BASE jump, bungee jump, hangglide, and fly planes?

Why are we allowed to swim in oceans with sharks?

Why can people buy guns and knives?

Is it realistic to try to protect people from themselves...with laws?
 
I brought up the motorcycler without helmet vs. car full of family due to an accident I witnessed on my way to work. A lady with her kids was hit by a man on his motorcycle he had made a left turn right into her front left fender and bounced across her hood onto the road on the right. Most of the damage that was visible was to his unprotected head, the whole family was in shock, the mother hysterical when I stopped to call and report on my cell.

Prior to this I may have said it was the riders choice but after witnessing the accident and what it did to the rider and the family I believe if you want to be on public roads you should have to wear a helmet or seatbelt.
 
So...if a pedestrian walked out in front of her the reaction would somehow be different? Or would you say that justifies anybody crossing a public road on foot, or on wheels would have to have a helmet on?
 
i smell a devil's advocate here.....kidding.
i see what you are saying. but there are more people driving bikes and cars then base jumping or any of those high risk sports. and obviously we can't regulate everything, but there are some very basic things we can. as to buses i often have wondered that myself. does anyone know why there are no seatbelts on buses?
 
I'd say there are way more drinkers and smokers than motorcyclists.

What about laws protecting them from cancer and liver disease? What about laws protecting them from addiction and heart disease?

What about laws to keep fat people from becoming fatter? The health related issues of obesity are enormous and growing. Isn't that kind of the same thing?

Are you, in theory, protecting a person from themselves if you prevent them from rapid weight gain and obesity?

I would also say there's more gun owners than motorcyclists.
 
ok so are you saying that because we can't possibly regulate all the hazardous things that people will do to themselves, why bother with the few things we can?
so like to hell with drivers ed? and first aid for teachers? and you know what, just let those pedestrians walk wherever the hell they want? those crazy walkers....
we can never be absolute. it won't work. but we can endeavor to be better and be safer, and do better.
 
Freya said:
I'm sure someone can correct me on the details (Ice...? :D ) but as far as I'm aware you have to wear a seatbelt by law if one's available. As for my personal opion, yes I think it should be a legal requirement to wear a seatbelt in a car, no matter whether you're the driver or passenger. I think anyone who doesn't, is frankly, a fool. Not sure about helmets, but they should make that a legal requirement too, if it isn't already.
Click to expand...
:p Yes, by law if you have seatbelts in the back of a car they have to be worn, obviously they are compulsory in the front (and it's only old cars that don't have them in the back). Anyone not wearing a seatbelt is liable to be fined (though a couple of times policemen have just indicated to me to put my belt on :eek: ) though if a child isn't wearing a belt the Adult is liable (anyone over 14 is classed as an Adult).

I'm divided on this - I wear my belt when i'm driving (for the most part, sometimes not on very short trips) but rarely wear it as a passenger. I know I should but never have. I know it has risks - I was in the car with someone who decided to jump a light, the person coming the opposite way also jumped it and when the driver had to brake hard I hit the windscreen - no damage but it did scare me (though obviously not enough to make me wear a belt at all times :rolleyes: - however with that driver I always wore a belt afterwards, for me it is how much I trust the driver - though I know you can't trust other drivers or the surroundings).

I must say though that it is very rare I am a passenger in a car - 99% of the time I drive, so thus wear a belt.

With regards to helmets - I think that should be a personal choice - if they are stupid enough to get onto a bike without one then thats their choice (though the same could be said for seatbelts).
 
I think for the most part those who do not ride, like to decide for those that do. I have a problem with that.

I have less problems with the seat belt law because that does effect almost everybody, including those that make the law.
 
can't say anything regarding the helmets, because I don't drive a motorcycle (yet).

Regarding seatbelts - please, I'm begging you, wear 'em! I never wore mine, until I got a girlfriend. She kept bugging me about it, telling me I should wear it, yada yada yada, so I started wearing it, just to get her off my back.

Now, about a year and a half ago I flipped my car 4 times (I wrote about it on the forum here), and if it hadn't been for that seatbelt, I'm pretty sure I'd be dead. Thanks to that seatbelt I crawled out of that totalled car pretty much unscathed.

Cheers
 
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